Childhood Pet was a Gift My father worked in a lab at MIT next door to an animal experimentation lab. The summer I was seven, he surprised us with a beagle puppy that the lab didn’t need anymore. He was so cute and cuddly. “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” was a song I heard all the time […]
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Envision a Future after Grief What do you want your future to be? I realize that this question, to someone in the deep, dark midst of grief, is a terrifying—even agonizing—one. Remember that Jerry Maguire-esque mission statement I told you about? I wrote it a month before my daughter Libby died, after losing my shit one day trying to be […]
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Living Under the Shadow of Grief Now, I’m living my best life. There was a time when I thought I could not move out of the shadow of darkness. While grieving, some tend to live in that space for just a bit. Others do a mere stop-by, as if pausing at a stop sign, and moving on. Then there are […]
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Grief support and mental health are deeply interconnected aspects of wellbeing. Grief is a natural response to loss, whether it’s the death of losing someone close, the end of a relationship, or any significant change or loss in one’s life. It is essential to recognise that there is no right or wrong to grieve and that grieving is a highly […]
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Grievers Need to Tell Their Stories Because of the personal and varying nature of grief, I believe that narratives—stories—are critically important and helpful both for accepting death and coping with loss. Initially, we often need to tell our story of a death over and over to ourselves internally or to others. This helps us assimilate what has happened. It is almost as if […]
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Writing Through the Pain of an Unsolved Homicide Sometimes a sprout can push through a crack in a sidewalk. Likewise, openings for self-empowerment and healing can grow while living with the cement-like pain of an unsolved homicide. By diving into our inward landscape and releasing that which grips internally, our relationship with and response to external experiences may be transformed. […]
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The Many Types of Tears I’ve cried about every type of cry there is since Libby died. There are the public, tears-silently-running-down-the-cheeks cries and the I’m-so-sad-I-just-have-to-get-it-out, medium-sized cries, and then there are the I-am-so-hysterical-I-literally-can’t-breathe-and-want-to-die cries. One evening, I cried so hard that I actually broke a blood vessel in my nose and blood started pouring out onto my desk and […]
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Why Routines Help When You’re Grieving Think of your favorite comfort food, the coziest blanket you own, or the pleasure of consuming a warm cup of hot chocolate before bed. All these things make you feel better, right? They’re like big, squeezie hugs (as Libby would say) because they are familiar. And it’s this familiarity that makes routines so amazing. […]
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Repairing Heirlooms My best friend and wife (same person) has a new entertainment obsession: the British television show, The Repair Shop. In each episode, master craftspeople receive and expertly, and amazingly, repair a wide variety of family heirlooms, including toys, furniture, household items, art pieces, and tools. Part of the appeal is the demonstration of incredible skill and creativity to […]
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Confidence Lost Of the many things I could not have known about grief following the death of my husband, Matt, was how worthless and inept I would feel. It made no sense. I had been through the excruciating experience of losing him. Why did I lose my own self-confidence? I was no longer able to function professionally for a long […]
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Open to Hope is an online community offering inspirational stories of loss, hope and recovery. We believe hope is the bridge between loss and recovery.
